Monday, April 19, 2010

We Have a SMALL Orchard - Thank Heaven!

It took the whole day today with both of us working together to finish pruning the last seven fruit trees.

It would have gone a lot faster but we have two plum trees that seem to grow like weeds, and apparently were hiding last year because for some reason, they did not get pruned. Whadda mess! Have I mentioned that these two plum trees have never given us one single plum? Arrrgh!

Each year they have blossoms as prolific as possibly could be, but the blossoms wither, fall off, and . . . no fruit. From what we've been able to find out, we think the trees seem to be suffering from plum curculio, and we've about exhausted all organic, non-chemical remedies available. But we're not even certain that's the problem for sure. At any rate, we gave both trees a severe pruning today thinking we've either cured . . . or killed them. Stay tuned.

After dinner tonight, I went out and thinned a few rows in the salad bed.

Here is the bed before thinning. Two rows of radishes on the right and Buttercrunch lettuce on the left with another row of lettuce (Red Sails) to its right that is juuust barely showing.

And a shot after I finished destroying . . . I mean thinning them. You can't even see the little plants left, can you?

When I looked at the bed this morning, the spinach was just starting to poke through. Tonight it's 1/2"-1" high.

We're both pretty pooped tonight. Who knew reaching over your head with a pair of pruners all day could strain muscles you apparently don't use much otherwise? And let's not even talk about bending over to pick up branches from off the ground. (I may have to ask hubby to untie my shoes tonight.)

3 comments:

Hey Mama Pea! We've got a plum tree too. Don't know how it got there or what kind it is. We first knew it was a plum tree last fall, bc it actually grew plums. They were still completely green, hard as can be and about the size of small olives by winter. I would so love to have the kind of wild plum trees we had on the farm as children. Small enough to pop in your mouth, and when they were REALLY ripe we would pop them in our mouths and squeeze out the sweetest fruit and juice EVER! Mmmm...

Hi, Patty - When I was growing up, our neighbors had an apricot tree in their back yard that they never used the fruit from. So we kids were free to eat as much as we wanted and they were just like the wild plums you had in your childhood. I can still remember how very good they were!

About Me

I live with my husband on a small homestead in Northeastern Minnesota. Our daughter (Beyond the Fork in the Road) currently lives in a small cabin in the woods not too far from us.

Our place is located outside a small tourist town and a two and a half hour's drive from the nearest big city. Trips to the city are infrequent, well-planned, and exhausting!

We currently raise chickens and have hives of honey bees. Raising some of our meat and most of our fruits and vegetables is a priority for us; so, along with our birds for meat and eggs, we have fruit trees, berry patches and a huge vegetable garden.

Quilting is my passion, and I could happily spend each day in my quilt studio if I weren't happily spending each day out in the garden. Good thing we have winters up here; Mother Nature helps keep my life balanced.